Apparatus, system, and method for ordering and provisioning variable bandwidth capacity on a network

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for automatic purchasing, reserving and/or provisioning of a wavelength bandwidth block are disclosed. A user may access a web page, such as an interactive web-portal, to provide bandwidth data and corresponding ordering information for reserving a particular amount of bandwidth capacity on a telecommunications network. Subsequently, the customer&#39;s may access and the bandwidth blocks to increase/decrease and/or activate/deactivate portions of the reserved bandwidth capacity as needed.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present non-provisional utility application is a continuation of andclaims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/376,266, titled “APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD ORDERING ANDPROVISIONING VARIABLE BANDWIDTH CAPACITY ON A NETWORK,” filed on Dec.12, 2016, the entire contents of which are fully incorporated byreference herein for all purposes. application Ser. No. 15/376,266 is acontinuation of and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/468,912, titled “APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHODORDERING AND PROVISIONING VARIABLE BANDWIDTH CAPACITY ON A NETWORK,”filed on May 10, 2012, and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,521,041 on Dec. 13,2016, the entire contents of which are fully incorporated by referenceherein for all purposes. application Ser. No. 13/468,912 claims priorityunder 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/484,618,titled “ORDERING AND PROVISIONING OF NETWORK SERVICES,” filed on May 10,2011, the entire contents of which are fully incorporated by referenceherein for all purposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to network communications, andmore particularly, the ordering of network services by customers and thecorresponding provisioning of those network services for the customers.

BACKGROUND

Customers access high-speed networks, such as telecommunicationnetworks, for many different types of data services, such as voice,enterprise applications, data storage, images, video and/or anycombination thereof. Typically, each of the various data services usedby a customer has different requirements with regards to latency,routing, and bandwidth capacity. For example, customers often needtelecommunication infrastructure and/or services that are capable ofsupporting short-term increases in bandwidth usages, unpredictablebandwidth usages, and/or large bandwidth requirements simultaneously. Asanother example, with the explosion of cloud computing and acorresponding increase in bandwidth requirements for data centernetworking applications, customers are looking for the ability toutilize high bandwidth for a limited amount of time.

Accordingly, customers are increasingly looking to service providers tooffer the network infrastructure to support short-term, unpredictable,and large bandwidth requirements. While some networking solutions suchas Multiprotocol Label Switching (“MPLS”) provide usage-based andburstable capabilities across a shared network, customers may stillrequire the fixed and predictable latency, fully dedicated bandwidth,and custom-routing features provided by a network's Layer 1 opticaltransport capabilities. It is with these concepts, among others, thatvarious aspects of the present disclosure were conceived.

SUMMARY

According to one aspect, a system for reserving bandwidth is disclosed.The system includes a first network node server comprising at least oneline-side port to communicate data at a maximum bandwidth capacity on anetwork. The first network node server also includes a plurality oftributary ports, each tributary port of the plurality of tributary portsfor communicating the data at a percentage of the maximum bandwidthcapacity. The system includes at least one processor configured toperform one or more steps for reserving bandwidth. For example, theprocessor may be configured to receive input to reserve the maximumbandwidth capacity on the network. The processor may be furtherconfigured to process the input to generate a reservation forcommunicating data by assigning the maximum bandwidth capacity to the atleast one line-side capacity port and assigning the percentage of themaximum bandwidth capacity to at least one of the plurality of tributaryports

According to another aspect, another system for reserving bandwidth isdisclosed. The system includes a first network node server comprising atleast one line-side port to communicate data at a maximum bandwidthcapacity on a network. The first network node server also includes aplurality of tributary ports, each tributary port of the plurality oftributary ports for communicating the data at a percentage of themaximum bandwidth capacity. The system includes a second network nodeserver comprising at least one other line-side port to communicate dataat the maximum bandwidth capacity on the network. The first network nodeserver also includes a plurality of other tributary ports, eachtributary port of the plurality of tributary ports for communicating thedata at a percentage of the maximum bandwidth capacity.

The system further includes at least one processor configured to performone or more steps for reserving bandwidth. For example, the processormay be configured to receive input to reserve the maximum bandwidthcapacity on the network. The processor may be further configured toprocess the input to generate a reservation for communicating data byassigning the maximum bandwidth capacity to the at least one line-sidecapacity port, assigning the percentage of the maximum bandwidthcapacity to at least one of the plurality of tributary ports, assigningthe maximum bandwidth capacity to the at least one other line-sidecapacity port, and assigning the percentage of the maximum bandwidthcapacity to at least one of the plurality of other tributary ports.

In yet another aspect, a method for reserving bandwidth is disclosed.The method includes receiving input to reserve a maximum bandwidthcapacity on a network. The method also includes processing the input togenerate a reservation for communicating data with a network node serverwithin the network by: assigning a maximum bandwidth capacity to atleast one line-side capacity port and assigning the percentage of themaximum bandwidth capacity to at least one of the plurality of tributaryports, wherein the network node comprises the at least one line-sideport and the plurality of tributary ports.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the presentdisclosure set forth herein will be apparent from the followingdescription of exemplary embodiments of those inventive concepts, asillustrated in the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that thedrawings are not necessarily to scale; however, the emphasis instead isbeing placed on illustrating the principles of the inventive concepts.Also, in the drawings the like reference characters refer to the sameparts throughout the different views. The drawings depict only exemplaryembodiments of the present disclosure and, therefore, are not to beconsidered limiting in scope.

FIG. 1 is a block diagrams illustrating an example networkingenvironment, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a computing environment forprovisioning bandwidth capacity, according to aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are block diagram illustrating a wavelength bandwidthblock, according to aspects of the present disclosure

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example processing device, according toaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example process for reservingbandwidth capacity, according to aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure offer network users, such ascorporations, educational or governmental institutions, and/or otherentities, a cost-efficient solution for accessing various amounts ofbandwidth capacity at a fractional cost. In various aspects, users maypurchase, and/or otherwise provision one or more wavelength bandwidthblocks to reserve access to a specific amount of bandwidth capacity on atelecommunications network. A wavelength bandwidth block (“WBB”)represents a pre-purchased or reserved bandwidth capacity between twospecific locations on a network. For example, a WBB may reserve 100gigabytes of bandwidth capacity between a data center building inPhiladelphia and a data center in California on a DWDM opticaltelecommunication network.

The physical infrastructure required to support the reserved bandwidthcapacity may be pre-positioned and/or installed at the respectivelocations between which the WBB is reserved. For example, with respectto an optical network, physical infrastructure such as base fiber andcorresponding optical networking components such as switches, ports,routers, etc., may be installed and/or pre-positioned at both locations.A user may access, such as through an interface, the provisioned WBB andactivate/deactivate portions and/or percentages of the reservedbandwidth capacity to increase/decrease the user's bandwidthconsumption. Subsequently, the user may automatically be billed based onthe users WBB reservation and bandwidth consumption using a two tieredapproach: first, the customer may automatically be billed a fractionalflat rate for provisioning a WBB to reserve a specific amount ofbandwidth capacity on the network; and second, the customer mayautomatically be billed a variable rate based on the customer's actualbandwidth consumption.

Historically, consumers of various network services have invested largeamounts of capital into leasing “dark fibers” from telecommunicationservice providers. Dark fiber refers to optical fiber infrastructurethat has been installed but has not been activated (e.g. the opticalfiber does not have the necessary devices to generate or receive anoptical signal). Such installation can be difficult and costly, such aswhen fiber is routed through metropolitan areas. Specifically, theconsumer will make a large upfront payment to a network service providerto provision and route a specific amount of bandwidth that will supportthe customer's current and projected future bandwidth needs. Generally,the consumers pay the entire fee for dark fiber to carry the bandwidthcapacity regardless of when the customer makes the additional investmentof networking equipment to actually transmit and receive data over thefiber. Thus, the “dark fiber” is present but the networking equipmentmust still be installed in order to “light” the dark fiber. With thesystems and methods of the present disclosure, in contrast, a consumermay have full control over reserved bandwidth capacity via a WBB, whileleveraging shared network economics by paying fractional costs forbandwidth reservations and actual costs for bandwidth consumption, amongother advantages.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example networking environment 100 for providingbandwidth on demand to users. As discussed herein, the term “bandwidthon demand” refers to the ability of a network user toactivate/deactivate portions and/or percentages of a bandwidth capacityto increase and/or decrease their bandwidth consumption. The network maybe an optical telecommunication network capable of providinghigh-capacity optical transmission over fiber connected between varioustypes of networking devices, such as switches, routers, gateways, andthe like. According to one aspect, the network may be a managedprotected Layer 1 network with fixed nodes (e.g. nodes A (102)-H (116)),or may be an unprotected network. Additionally, the network may becapable of implementing mesh routing, diveristy/triversity, maximizationof redundancy, and/or other network techniques and topologies, and thenetwork and/or portions of the network may be dedicated to a particularuser. In such various possible configurations, each node may connect toand/or communicate with a bandwidth application 208 that provides userswith the ability to purchase and/or otherwise provision a WBB to reservea specific amount of bandwidth capacity in the form of a WBB.Subsequently, users may access the WBB to activate/deactivate portionsand/or percentages of the bandwidth capacity to increase or decrease theuser's bandwidth consumption.

In one particular embodiment, the network 100 may be a fiber optictelecommunication network implementing a Dense Wavelength Multiplexing(DWDM) Transmit system (or DWDM infrastructure) that is configured totransmit data bi-directionally using one or more specific wavelengths.DWDM is a technology that increases the capacity of an optical fiber byfirst assigning incoming optical signals to specific wavelengths oflight (colors) within a designated band and then combining ormultiplexing multiple optical signals so that they can be amplified as agroup and transmitted over a single fiber or pair of fibers to increasecapacity. Each optical signal can be at a different rate and in adifferent format. Example DWDM applications may include ultra-highbandwidth long haul as well as ultra-high-bandwidth metropolitan orinner city-networks, and access networks that are closer to the end usersuch as G.709, SONET, Internet protocol (IP), and asynchronous transfermode (ATM) networks.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example computing environment 200 that mayimplement various embodiments of the present disclosure, such asproviding bandwidth on demand. The computing environment may accessand/or otherwise be integrated with a networking environment, such asthe networking environment depicted in FIG. 1. A processing device 202and/or user devices 204-206 may include various hardware andaccompanying software computing components that may be configured forprovisioning one or more WBBs to reserve bandwidth capacity. Once a WBBhas been provisioned, a user, such as a customer of a network serviceprovider, may access a WBB to manage unpredictable bandwidth growth anddemand across their networks, without the large, upfront investment,such as pre-purchasing dark fiber and/or dedicated DWDM systems. Thus,while users may be encouraged by service providers, such as DWDMhardware vendors, to acquire expensive dark fiber connectivity, aspectsof the present disclosure provides users with the network control andflexibility of a customer-owned network and corresponding pricingschemes that allows the users to pay a fractional rate for reservingbandwidth capacity on the front-end by provisioning one or more WBBs andan additional variable rate for actual bandwidth consumption on theback-end, all while taking advantage of the various benefits of thenetwork on which the WBBs were provisioned, such as a route diversityand triversity, load-balancing, redundancy, etc.

For example, the processing device 202 may execute a bandwidthapplication 108 that provisions WBBs and subsequently allows users toactivate/deactivate portions and/or percentages of the bandwidthcapacity to increase or decrease the user's bandwidth consumption. Thebandwidth application 208 may be located on the processing device 202and/or on the user devices 204-206, or elsewhere.

The processing device 202 and/or the user devices 204-206 may be apersonal computer, work station, server, mobile device, mobile phone,processor, and/or other processing device. Each device may include oneor more processors that process software or other machine-readableinstructions and may include a memory to store the software or othermachine-readable instructions and data. The memory may include volatileand/or non-volatile memory. Additionally, each device may also include acommunication system to communicate via a wireline and/or wirelesscommunications, such as through the Internet, an intranet, and Ethernetnetwork, a wireline network, a wireless network, and/or anothercommunication network. The processing device 202 and/or the user devices204-206 may further include a display (not shown) for viewing data, suchas a computer monitor, and an input device (not shown), such as akeyboard or a pointing device (e.g., a mouse, trackball, pen, touch pad,or other device) for entering data and navigating through data,including exams, images, documents, structured data, unstructured data,HTML pages, other web pages, and other data.

According to one aspect, the processing device 202 and/or the userdevices 204-206 may include a user-interface (UI) 212 and 214 to receiveinput from a user to provision WBBs. UIs 212 and 214 may include adisplay (not shown) such as a computer monitor, liquid crystal display,for viewing data and/or input forms, and any combination of input/outputdevices (not shown), such as a keyboard, or a pointing device (e.g., amouse, trackball, pen, or touch pad), speaker, and/or any other type ofinput device.

The user devices 204-206, processing device 202, and/or network nodeservers 216-220, may communicate with through a communication network210, which may be the Internet, an intranet, a local area network, awireless local network, a wide area network, or another communicationnetwork, as well as combinations of networks. For example, the userdevices 204-206 may communicate with the processing device 202 through aprivate network to reserve bandwidth capacity. In another aspect, theuser devices 204-206 may communicate with the processing device 202directly such as through an Ethernet connection. While aspects of thepresent disclosure have been described as being performed using multipledevices within a computing environment, such as computing environment200 shown in FIG. 2, it is contemplated that such aspects may beperformed locally, using only a single device, such as the processingdevice 202 and in such cases the user device is integrated to orotherwise in direct connection with the processing device 202.

According to one aspect, a user, such as customer, may access a userdevice 204-206 to purchase and/or provision one or more WBBs to reservebandwidth capacity. Each WBB is provisioned to reserve a specific amountof wavelength bandwidth capacity between at least at least two networknode servers 216-218. In particular, a WBB is provisioned to reservebandwidth capacity, as will be further described below, by assigningand/or otherwise associating one or more ports of the network nodeservers 216-218 to a particular user. For example, referring again toFIG. 1, a WBB may be provisioned to reserve 75 gigabytes of wavelengthbandwidth capacity between A and G. As another example, a user mayprovision a WBB to reserve 50 gigabytes of wavelength bandwidth capacitybetween F and D. Subsequently, the user may access the provisioned WBBto activate/deactivate portions and/or percentages of the bandwidthcapacity reserved by the WBB to increase or decrease the user'sbandwidth consumption.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example WBB that may be purchased and/orprovisioned by a user, such as a customer, to reserve a specific amountof bandwidth capacity. As shown, WBB 302 is a reservation of a specificamount of wavelength bandwidth capacity between two network node servers(e.g. between network node servers 216 and 220 of FIG. 2), asillustrated by building A Chicago 304 and building B New York 306. EachWBB may include one or more customer-dedicated line-side capacity ports314 and 316, and one or more corresponding tributary capacity ports 312and 318. The line-side capacity ports provide access to a maximum amountof bandwidth on a network provider's network dedicated for a particularuser. Accordingly, in the example illustrated in FIG. 3A, the line-sidecapacity ports provide access to a maximum of 100 gigabytes of bandwidthcapacity reserved by the WBB 302 on a network providers network. Thetributary ports 312 and 318 are capable of communicating—transmittingand/or receiving—at least a portion and/or percentage of the 100gigabyte maximum bandwidth capacity that is reserved by the WBB 302 andaccessible via the line-side capacity ports 314 and 316 to theuser/customer.

Each WBB may include one or more service channels 308 and 310. Theservice channels represent point-to-point wavelength circuits capable ofconsuming a portion and/or percentage of the bandwidth capacity reservedby the WBB. Stated differently, each service channel may represent adiscrete physical path between two points in a network. For example, inone particular embodiment, in conjunction with a network implementingDWDM, a service channel may represent an individual wavelength of lighttransmitted on an optical fiber from one point on the network to anotherpoint on the network consuming a line-side port and a tributary port.For example, as shown in FIG. 3B, service channel 310 may provide accessto 10 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity of WBB 302 using tributary ports312 and 318.

Additionally, each of the one or more service channels associated with aWBB may be configured in a variety of ways. For example, a WBB may bearranged as a large block of reserved bandwidth including servicechannels that are all the same speed. For example, a WBB that reserves100 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity may include ten (10) servicechannels, where each service channel is capable of providing 10gigabytes of capacity. Alternatively, the WBB may be arranged as amedium block of bandwidth including a mixture of large and smallbandwidth service channels. For example, a WBB that reserves 30gigabytes of bandwidth capacity may include one 10 gigabyte servicechannel capable of providing 10 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity andeight 2.5 gigabyte service channels, where each individual 2.5 servicechannel is capable of providing 2.25 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity. Inyet another example, the WBB may be a small block of reserved bandwidthincluding only small bandwidth channels. For example, a WBB thatreserves 10 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity may include two 2.5 gigabyteservice channels, each capable of providing 2.5 gigabytes of bandwidthcapacity, 2 GIGE service channels, each capable of providing 1 gigabyteof bandwidth capacity, and two 1 gigabyte storage area network (SAN)service channel, each capable of providing 1 gigabyte of bandwidthcapacity. Other arrangements may also be provided.

By provisioning a WBB with one or more service channels, a user, such asa network service provider customer, may save on the cost of accessingbandwidth capacity. For example, a customer may provision a WWB toreserve 100 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity and pay a $10,000 a monthfor the reservation. The WBB may have 5 service channels, each providing20 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity. The customer may pay $20,000 permonth for each service channel the customer actually uses over a givenperiod of time. Assuming one service channel is activated for one month,the customer will pay $30,000 for the actual consumption of 20 gigabytesof bandwidth (the one service channel) and the reservation of 100gigabytes of bandwidth, or 80 gigabytes more of bandwidth for use in thefuture if necessary. In contrast if the customer were to pay for darkfiber, the customer may have to pay for all 100 gigs of bandwidth viaall five service channels as though they were currently being consumed,resulting in a fee of $100,000.

Referring again to FIG. 2, each network node server 216-220 (e.g. theservers at Building A Chicago 304 and Building B New York 306 of FIG.3A) may include various pieces of equipment and/or the physicalinfrastructure required to provide data transmission, using all or partof the WBB. The network node servers may have components such as aphysical chassis (e.g. a DWDM chassis) containing or otherwiseoperatively connected to base technologies such as: optical fiber(s),switches, routers, couplers, amplifiers, light directing/redirectingcomponents, ports, fiber network cards positions, and/or any otherphysical components required to provide data transmission and/orotherwise facilitate communication with other network node servers inthe network. Additionally, the network node server may also include acommunication system to communicate via a wireline and/or wirelesscommunications, such as through the Internet, a telecommunicationnetwork, a fiber optic network, and/or another communication network.

In some arrangements, however, a line card or cards may not bepre-installed at the network node servers. The network node servers216-220 may thus require the installation of line cards, digital cards,and/or network cards, etc., to properly channelize, setup, establish,and/or activate the wavelength bandwidth capacity reserved by a WBB.Generally, a line card or a digital line card represents a modularelectronic circuit on a printed circuit board that interfaces within atelecommunications network, such as in DWDM system. The cards are notpre-installed at the network node servers because the installationprocess for such cards may be time consuming and expensive. Thus, it maybe optimal for services providers to wait until a consumer has purchasedbandwidth capacity before spending time and money to install the cards.

A network operator installs the line card at a particular location whena customer purchases and/or provisions a WBB to reserve a specificamount of bandwidth capacity. The network operator is, for example, acompany that owns and/or operates the equipment within each respectivedestination, such as a telecommunication service provider. Once acustomer reserves a WBB the network operator may install the line cards.In particular, a line card may be installed at a network node server216-220 to configure the reserved WBB and corresponding line andtributary ports into one or more service channels.

FIG. 4 is an example block diagram illustrating the various hardwareand/or software components of the processing device 202 according to oneexemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The processing device202 may include a processing system 402 that may be used to execute thebandwidth application 208 that automatically purchases and/or provisionsa WBB to reserve a specific amount of bandwidth a network, such as anoptical telecommunications network implementing DWDM. The processingsystem 402 may include memory and/or be in communication with a memory418, which may include volatile and/or non-volatile memory. Theprocessing system 402 may also include various other computingcomponents. The processing device 202 may also include a database 420.The database 420 may be a general repository of data including bandwidthdata, bandwidth information, WBB data and associated reservationinformation, etc. The database 420 may include memory and one or moreprocessors or processing systems to receive, process, query and transmitcommunications and store and retrieve such data. In another aspect, thedatabase 420 may be a database server.

The processing device 202 may include a computer readable media (“CRM”)408, which may include computer storage media, communication media,and/or another available computer readable media medium that can beaccessed by the processing system 202. For example, CRM 408 may includenon-transient computer storage media and communication media. By way ofexample and not limitation, computer storage media includes memory,volatile media, nonvolatile media, removable media, and/or non-removablemedia implemented in a method or technology for storage of information,such as machine/computer readable/executable instructions, datastructures, program modules, or other data. Communication media includesmachine/computer readable/executable instructions, data structures,program modules, or other data. The CRM 408 may store executableinstructions to implement the bandwidth application 208 and/orassociated functions, processes, etc. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, instructions, objects, components, data structures,etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstractdata types.

According to one aspect, the bandwidth application 208 may include areceiving module 410 that receives input, such as a request from a user,indicating that a user wants to purchase or otherwise provision a WBB toreserve a specific amount of bandwidth capacity between two nodes of anetwork. The input may include a description and/or quantification ofthe specific amount of bandwidth capacity the user wants to reserve. Forexample, a user may interact with the user device 204 to enter variousmouse clicks and/or keystrokes as prompted by one or more screen shotsvia a web portal displayed on the user device to provide inputindicating that the user wants to provision a WBB of reserving 20, 35,60, 75, or 100 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity between two nodes, A andB of a optical telecommunications network.

A reservation module 412 may process the input received by the requestmodule 410 and automatically provision a WBB reserving the specificamount of bandwidth described in the input by assigning one or moreline-side capacity ports and one or more corresponding tributarycapacity ports to a user at a network node server. For example, thereservation module 412 may process input received by the receivingmodule 208 from a user “C”, indicating that C wants to reserve 100gigabytes of bandwidth. Accordingly, the reservation module 412 mayreserve 100 gigabytes of bandwidth on an optical DWDM network byassigning at least five line-side capacity ports and five correspondingtributary ports to the user. The line and tributary capacity ports maybe configured as five individual service channels, each service channelcapable of providing 20 (i.e. 5%) gigabytes of bandwidth of the maximumcapacity of 100 gigabytes.

Once a WBB has been reserved, the reservation module 412 mayautomatically bill or otherwise initiate a billing process to charge theuser a marginal flat rate for making the WBB reservation. Subsequently,once a user has been properly billed for provisioning a WBB, thereservation module 412 may automatically initiate a process to activatethe network node servers between which the WBB is reserved. For example,the reservation module 412 may provide output (e.g. email, alerts,electronic messaging, etc) indicating to a network service provider thata specific network node server requires the installation of a line card.Alternatively, the reservation module 412 may automatically generate aticket for processing, such as by a network service provider engineeringdepartment system that may initiate the installation of a line card.

A modification module 414 may receive modification input from the userto activate/deactivate and/or increase and/or decrease their bandwidthconsumption within a WBB. For example, a user may interact with the userdevice 204 to enter various mouse clicks and/or keystrokes as promptedby one or more screen shots via a user web portal displayed on the userdevice 204 to provide input allowing the user to modify the user'sbandwidth capacity and/or bandwidth consumption WBB. For example, themodification module 414 may receive the input to increase or decreasethe bandwidth capacity within a given WBB for a specified period of timeby activating or deactivating one or more line-side ports andcorresponding tributary ports and/or one or more service channels. Forexample, the modification module 412 may receive input indicating thatthe user wants to increase their bandwidth capacity by activating anadditional service channel for several hours, days, months, or any othertype of temporal delineation. The modification module 414 may connect toand/or communicate with the one or more network node servers 216-218 toactivate particular portions of the physical infrastructure within thenetwork node server to effectively increase and/or decrease thebandwidth capacity currently being consumed. Once a WBB has beenmodified, the reservation module 412 may automatically bill or otherwiseinitiate a billing process to charge the user a rate for increasingtheir bandwidth consumption. Alternatively, the reservation module 412may adjust an existing rate the user was paying to reflect a decrease inbandwidth consumption.

FIG. 5 depicts an example method and/or process 500-1 for provisioningWBBs to reserve bandwidth capacity for users. Process 500-1 may beexecuted by at least one processor encoded with, or executinginstructions of, a bandwidth application 208. Initially, at 525, process500-1 includes receiving input to reserve a maximum bandwidth capacityon a network. For example, a data services enterprise (“DSA”) isanticipating a short-term increase in bandwidth consumption in upcomingmonths because the company needs to make duplicate copies of all of itsdata for backup purposes. The DSA wants to increase its bandwidthcapacity between its central office location, located on the east coastand its data warehouse, located on the west coast. Thus, the DSA mayaccess a web portal, such as a customer portal, through a secureweb-browser (e.g., Microsoft Explorer®, Mozilla Firefox®, Safari® or thelike) on one or more of the user-interfaces 204-206 to provide input inresponse to a series of prompts. In particular, the DSA may provideinput to reserve 100 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity, which is receivedby the bandwidth application 208.

At 530, after the bandwidth and/or order information has been received,the information is processed to generate a reservation for communicatingdata to and/or from a network node server on the network. In particular,the input processed by first assigning a maximum bandwidth capacity toat least one line-side capacity port on the network node server andassigning a percentage of the maximum bandwidth capacity to at least oneof a plurality of tributary ports on the network node server. Forexample, WBB reserved by the DSA reserving 100 gigabytes of bandwidthcapacity between its central location and data center location mayinclude five service channels, where each of the five service channelsis capable of providing access to 10 gigabytes of bandwidth. The DSA(i.e. the customer) is charged both a flat rate for the reservation andan additional varying rate for the DSA's actual bandwidth consumption.

Once the reservation has been made, the network node servers on thenetwork are activated at 535. For example, physical infrastructure suchas one or more line cards may be installed at the DSA's central locationand data center location respectively, to allow for bandwidth capacitybetween the two locations based on the reservation made within the WBB.

At 535, second input to alter bandwidth consumption on the network nodeserver is received. For example, the data services enterprise mayrequire a large increase in bandwidth capacity in order to produceduplicate servers of all of its existing databases for backup purposes.Accordingly, an administrator of the data services enterprise may usethe user device 204 to generate a request to activate 3 of the 5 servicelines reserved within its WBB. Subsequently, the DSA's bandwidthconsumption may increase by 30 gigabytes of bandwidth capacity.Subsequently, when the data duplication is finished, the administratorof the data services enterprise may use the user device 204 to accessthe customer web portal and generate a request to deactivate the 3recently activate service channels, effectively reducing the dataservices enterprise usage back to previous levels. DSA will be chargedfor bandwidth consumption while the service channels were active.

The description above includes example systems, methods, techniques,instruction sequences, and/or computer program products that embodytechniques of the present disclosure. However, it is understood that thedescribed disclosure may be practiced without these specific details. Inthe present disclosure, the methods disclosed may be implemented as setsof instructions or software readable by a device. Further, it isunderstood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methodsdisclosed are instances of example approaches. Based upon designpreferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy ofsteps in the method can be rearranged while remaining within thedisclosed subject matter. The accompanying method claims presentelements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not necessarilymeant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

The described disclosure may be provided as a computer program product,or software, that may include a machine-readable medium having storedthereon instructions, which may be used to program a computer system (orother electronic devices) to perform a process according to the presentdisclosure. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storinginformation in a form (e.g., software, processing application) readableby a machine (e.g., a computer). The machine-readable medium mayinclude, but is not limited to, magnetic storage medium (e.g., floppydiskette), optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM); magneto-opticalstorage medium, read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM);erasable programmable memory (e.g., EPROM and EEPROM); flash memory; orother types of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.

It is believed that the present disclosure and many of its attendantadvantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it willbe apparent that various changes may be made in the form, constructionand arrangement of the components without departing from the disclosedsubject matter or without sacrificing all of its material advantages.The form described is merely explanatory, and it is the intention of thefollowing claims to encompass and include such changes.

While the present disclosure has been described with reference tovarious exemplary embodiments, it will be understood that theseembodiments are illustrative and that the scope of the disclosure is notlimited to them. Many variations, modifications, additions, andimprovements are possible. More generally, embodiments in accordancewith the present disclosure have been described in the context ofexemplary implementations. Functionality may be separated or combined inblocks differently in various embodiments of the disclosure or describedwith different terminology. These and other variations, modifications,additions, and improvements may fall within the scope of the disclosureas defined in the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for providing bandwidth comprising: afirst network node server comprising: at least one line-side port tocommunicate data at a maximum bandwidth capacity on a network; and aplurality of tributary ports, each tributary port of the plurality oftributary ports for communicating the data at a percentage of themaximum bandwidth capacity; and at least one processor to: receive inputto reserve the maximum bandwidth capacity on the network; process theinput to generate a reservation for communicating data by: assigning themaximum bandwidth capacity to the at least one line-side capacity port;and assigning the percentage of the maximum bandwidth capacity to atleast one of the plurality of tributary ports.
 2. The system as recitedin claim 1, wherein receiving input for an amount of bandwidth comprisesconducting a dialog with the user on a display prompting the user toprovide the input via a web portal.
 3. The system as recited in claim 1,wherein the processor is further configured to: receive a second inputto decrease bandwidth consumption on the first network node server bydeactivating the at least one plurality of tributary ports.
 4. Thesystem as recited in claim 1, wherein the network is an opticaltelecommunications network.
 5. The system as recited in claim 1, whereinthe reservation corresponds to a wavelength bandwidth block.
 6. Thesystem as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to activate the first network node server by initiating theinstallation of a line card.
 7. A system for providing bandwidthcomprising: a first network node server comprising: at least oneline-side port to communicate data at a maximum bandwidth capacity on anetwork; and a plurality of tributary ports, each tributary port of theplurality of tributary ports for communicating the data at a percentageof the maximum bandwidth capacity; and a second network node servercomprising: at least one other line-side port to communicate the data atthe maximum bandwidth capacity on the network; and at least oneprocessor to: receive input to reserve the maximum bandwidth capacity onthe network; process the input to generate a reservation forcommunicating data between the first network node server and the secondnetwork node server by: assigning the maximum bandwidth capacity to theat least one line-side capacity port; and assigning the percentage ofthe maximum bandwidth capacity to at least one of the plurality oftributary ports.
 8. The system as recited in claim 7, wherein theprocessor is further configured to: receive a second input to decreasebandwidth consumption on the first network node server by: deactivatingthe at least one tributary ports of the plurality of tributary ports. 9.The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the network is an opticaltelecommunications network.
 10. The system as recited in claim 7,wherein the reservation corresponds to a wavelength bandwidth block. 11.The system as recited in claim 7, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to activate the first network node server by initiating theinstallation of a line card.
 12. A method for reserving bandwidthcomprising: receiving, at a processor, input to reserve a maximumbandwidth capacity on a network; processing, at the at least oneprocessor, the input to generate a reservation for communicating datawith a network node server within the network by: assigning a maximumbandwidth capacity to at least one line-side capacity port; andassigning the percentage of the maximum bandwidth capacity to at leastone of the plurality of tributary ports, wherein the network node servercomprises the at least one line-side port and the plurality of tributaryports.
 13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprisingreceiving a second input to decrease bandwidth consumption by thenetwork node server by deactivating the at least one plurality oftributary ports.
 14. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein thenetwork is an optical telecommunications network.
 15. The method asrecited in claim 12, wherein the reservation corresponds to a wavelengthbandwidth block.
 16. The method as recited in claim 12, furthercomprising activating the network node server by initiating theinstallation of a line card.